1. Field
The present invention relates generally to flash memory readers, and more specifically to an improved configuration of the same.
2. Background
Digital cameras have become one of the most popular of electronic devices. In a recent year, more digital cameras were sold than traditional film cameras. Images from digital cameras can be downloaded and stored on personal computers. Digital pictures can be converted to common formats such as JPEG and sent as e-mail attachments or posted to virtual photo albums on the Internet. Video as well as still images can be captured, depending on the kind of digital camera.
Digital cameras typically capture images electronically and ultimately store the images as bits (one and zeros) on a solid-state memory. Flash memory is the most common storage for digital cameras. Flash memory contains one or more electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) integrated circuit chips that allow reading, writing, and block erasing.
Early digital cameras required the user to download or transfer the images from the flash memory within the digital camera to a personal computer (PC). A standard serial cable was most widely used. However, the limited transfer rate of the serial cable and the large size of the digital images made such serial downloads a patience-building experience. Serial downloads could easily take half an hour for only a few dozen images.
Digital camera manufacturers solved this problem by placing the flash memory chips on a small removable card. The flash-memory card could then be removed from the digital camera, much as film is removed from a standard camera. The flash-memory card could then be inserted into an appropriate slot in a PC, and the image files directly copied to the PC.
The flash-memory cards are also used for many other electronic devices. As a result, a user may have multiple memory cards of several different types. For example, a user may have two or three Memory Stick cards for a Sony MP3 player, a couple of Smart Media cards for a Fujitsu camera, etc.
When the user sits at his computer, he may want to keep the cards in a device designed like a juke box, so he can access them, transfer files among them, and otherwise manipulate them “on demand.” Furthermore, with the recent development of write once/read many (WORM) flash modules such as are offered by various companies, including Matrix Semiconductor, users now have the opportunity to create archives of media files such as music, movies, etc.
What is clearly needed is a memory card jukebox that may be used to make a multitude of such memory/media cards available simultaneously, allowing a user to read and copy among them, etc., without having to manually shuffle them in and out of their readers.